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Information systems

Smartcards enable multi-nation healthcare in Germany during 2006 World
Cup

26 June 2006

Fremont California, USA. Smart cards carrying health data
are enabling visitors to Germany gain rapid access to healthcare during the
World Cup. Smartcard readers supplied by SCM Microsystems, Inc.
(NASDAQ:SCMM) are being rolled out to about 20 hospitals near where the
soccer matches will take place as part of the European NETC@RDS project.

SCM's SCR3311 smartcard readers will allow German medical staff to read data
from new European health cards as well as the national health cards of
various countries, enabling World Cup athletes, staff and visitors from
participating nations access health care services.

A broader circulation of the readers to additional health care facilities
in Germany will follow over the next several months.

In addition to
providing a common software platform to read cards from multiple European
countries, the readers make it possible for national health cards, rather
than cumbersome paper forms, to be used as the base for billing with
insurance companies while travelling. SCM's smartcard readers are compatible
with health cards from all countries participating in the NETC@RDS program
and compliant to the relevant standards for e-health programs throughout
Europe.

"The 2006 World Cup follows the Olympic Games in Athens as the
second international mass event where the NETC@RDS program has been made
available to health card holders," said Dr. Gerhard Brenner, NETC@RDS
spokesman from the Central Research Institute of Ambulatory Health Care in
Germany. "The use of smart cards to provide data significantly reduces
administrative operations at these venues. The NETC@RDS project is not only
a more modern approach, but is built on current national health initiatives
to ensure that ongoing program investments are protected."

"We are pleased
that our readers are once again being used to provide support the NETC@RDS
project at a major world sporting event," said Robert Schneider, chief
executive officer of SCM Microsystems. "NETC@RDS offers substantial
advantages to citizens as well as insurance companies, providing rapid
access to health care services in European countries and simplification of
billing for those services."

About the NETC@RDS Project

The NETC@RDS
Project aims to improve the access of mobile citizens to trans-European
health services by using advanced Web-oriented applications based on IT
systems, smartcards or a combination of both. It also aims to implement and
evaluate technical solutions for the electronification of the European
Health Insurance Card and for improving additional services such as the
inter-European health costs clearing/billing processing. The consortium of
the NETC@RDS Project includes partners from France, Germany, Austria,
Greece, Finland, Italy, Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary and
sub-contractors and/or supporters in many of the participating countries.